Probiotics for healthy ageing: Innovation barriers and opportunities for bowel habit improvement in nursing homes

As aging is associated with changes in the diversity and composition of the microbiota, resulting in increased susceptibility to constipation and diarrhoea, probiotics seem to be a promising intervention to modulate and (partially) restore the gut microbiota and its associated disorders. Here, we review the current state of probiotic innovation for elderly nursing home residents with respect to bowel habit improvement. By systematically exploring all aspects of the innovation cycle, including unmet patient needs, efficacy, safety, and health economics, we revealed the main barriers and corresponding opportunities for probiotic valorisation within this domain. Although our results indicate that there is a clear unmet patient need and that probiotic intervention may be both efficacious and safe in improving the bowel habits of elderly residents in nursing homes, only few clinical studies have addressed this problem. High quality clinical studies are required to further drive the probiotic innovation cycle within this domain.